BOWNE TOWNSHIP -- A herd of students entered the milking parlor at SwissLane Dairy Farms and got a glimpse of what it takes to stock a grocery store cooler.

Lined up on both sides of a center aisle were the rear ends of a few dozen cows, spider-like suction machines attached to their udders.

"I thought they would be using cans," 8-year-old Roy Toscano said later.

Instead, as workers monitored the mechanical process, Annie Link explained to students from Grand Rapids' Sts. Peter & Paul School that cows shuffle in 24 hours a day to have their udders soaped, washed and milked.

The second- and third-graders watched as the tally exceeded 50 pounds of milk for cow No. 3775, with her digital name and amount recorded on a monitor above the stall.

Exploring the milky way

Who: Annie Link

Claim to fame: Founder of Dairy Discovery, an agri-tourism business that offers tours of SwissLane Dairy Farms in Bowne Township

Age: 28

Family: Husband Gerard and three children

Background: Raised on the farm founded by her great-grandfather and still lives nearby, as do 20 other family members

Award: Michigan Farm Bureau's Volunteer of the Month for December 2007 because of her efforts to educate the public about agriculture

After a few students felt the machine's suction, they saw the pipes that transport 7,000 gallons per day to massive holding tanks.

Soon that milk would be on store shelves.

"These are a lot of city kids who don't think about where their milk comes from," teacher Denise Raap said. "Our milk just doesn't magically appear at the store. This is important for them to see this."

A mixed chorus of laughter and disgust suddenly erupted.

"And, of course," Raap added, "the most exciting thing is when (cows) go to the bathroom."

Welcome to the farm, kids.

SwissLane, a 1,150-cow dairy farm at 12877 84th St. SE, has been a place of "Dairy Discovery," instructing about 2,500 students since Link launched her business by that name in 2006.

School, day-care and other children's groups visit the farm to get a look at the cows, learn about the milking process and, from time to time, witness the birth of a calf.

"We used to go to Uncle Joe's farm," Link said. "Nobody even has an uncle to go visit anymore. A lot of people have no ties.

"People are getting so removed, they don't understand."

Link, 28, was honored this winter by the Michigan Farm Bureau with a volunteer award for her efforts in educating the public about life on the farm.

Her business is part of a growing agri-tourism industry that is finding innovative ways of linking the public to local food sources.

Lack of funding has prevented a comprehensive study of the burgeoning industry's economic impact, but the state's database of agri-tourism operations has grown to more than 1,000, up from 450 in 2006, said Jeanne Lipe at the Michigan Department of Agriculture.

That includes roadside markets, U-pick farms, corn mazes, cider mills and farm experiences such as the tours at SwissLane. Other local examples include the winery at Robinette's Apple Haus & Gift Barn and wedding facilities at Post Family Farm near Hudsonville.

All of it supplements Michigan's $60 billion agriculture industry with a touch of the state's $18 billion tourism trade.

"It's a way to spread out the economic impact of the business year-round," Lipe said. "Agri-tourism as a buzzword -- the phrase is everywhere now.

Organizations such as the Michigan Farm Marketing & Agri-Tourism Association, which last summer co-sponsored its first Great Lakes Agri-Tourism Experience bus tour, have sprouted.

Especially for younger farmers, agri-tourism presents a value-added venture to help support the state's second-largest industry, Lipe said.

After arriving at the farm in minivans, the Catholic school students were quizzed by Link on what food comes from a dairy farm.

"Something that you put on toast?" she asked. "What's another name for one that we eat in the summer?"

Link grew up at SwissLane and lives there with her husband and three children. They are some of the 24 family members still within two miles of the fourth-generation farm founded in the early 1900s by Link's great-grandfather, Swiss immigrant Fredrick Oesch.

Her father and two uncles operate the dairy business.

Noting just 2 percent of the country's population lives on a farm, down from about 50 percent a century ago, Link launched Dairy Discovery to give the other 98 percent a taste of rural America.

She was honored in December by the Michigan Farm Bureau for showcasing modern farm methods and environmental stewardship.

"There's a lot of disconnect between people and food," Link said. "If you're eating stuff that's made in America, you're supporting the family farm.

"There are farms all around here that are just like us."

Her Dairy Discovery attracted 500 "tourists" in 2006, then about 2,000 last year. Admission costs $3 per student for school tours, and $5 per person for other groups.

Family days are held every Saturday in April and October for $5 per person, and Link also hosts birthday parties and other special on-farm events.

Complementing the tour is a straw maze accompanied by 14-year-old farm dog, Daisy.

"It's not that this is going to be a big business, but the public relations is more beneficial to the farm than the monetary side of it," Link said. "We feel like this is so important to get our community involved in what we're doing.

"Of course," she said later, "I want people to drink more milk, too."

Most of SwissLane's milk is shipped to a yogurt plant in Ohio, with some sent to a local milk processor. It costs about $16 to produce 100 pounds, or about 12 gallons, of milk, up about $2 from last spring, Link said.

The current market rate for Michigan milk is about $19 per 100 pounds, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. So the profit margin at Swisslane is about 24 cents per gallon.

Production costs, including feed, fuel, wages, health and electricity, are about $1.28 per gallon.

Link said rising income in developing countries is boosting global demand and pushing up prices. Overseas drought also has had an impact on supply.

And commodity prices, such as the hay SwissLane buys to feed its cows, have spiked sharply in the past year. Of course, so has the price of fuel and fertilizer. "It's costing us a lot more to make the milk," Link said.

Inside scoop

As students huddled at the start of their tour in the chilly morning air, Link did her part to boost demand by asking students if they consume a lot of dairy products.

"That's the best way to get your calcium," she said. "It's going to make your teeth and bones strong."

But what does a human body good depends on how the bovine body gets treated at the farm. Link showed students through the main barn where hundreds of cows munched silage and, of course, produced manure.

"There it went again!" screamed Samantha Knight, 8. "Eeewww!"

Link explained 1,150 cows make a lot of manure, which is collected in troughs to fertilize the farm's fields that grow corn, soybeans and wheat.

She also pointed out salt blocks and vats of water from which the cows drink 50 gallons per day, and the overhead fans and sprayers that keep the cows cool in summer.

"The cows actually like the winter better than the summer," Link said. "Our job is to make our cows as happy as can be."

Later, inside a smaller barn, students bottle-fed water to baby calves.

"He wants to drink it all!" said Jeffrey Dunst, 8, as he tried to wrest a half-empty bottle away from an 11-day-old calf.

"Just to be able to touch a real live animal, it's more concrete in their minds," said Raap, their teacher.